Thursday, July 14, 2016

Dr. Steve Cordina recently rejoined the University of South Alabama College of Medicine as an associate professor of neurology. He serves as an interventional neurologist with special interest in stroke and aneurysm treatment.

Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Cordina served in neurointerventional and neurocritical care at Valley Baptist Medical System in Brownsville, Texas.

From 2011 to 2015, Dr. Cordina served in the departments of neurology, neurosurgery and radiology at the USA College of Medicine. He established the first academic neurointerventional facility and neurocritical service and re-established the first Primary Stroke Center on the eastern Gulf Coast. Under his direction, the USA Medical Center became the first facility in Alabama to receive the AHA/ASA Gold Plus Target Stroke Elite Plus Certification.

Dr. Cordina earned his medical degree from the University of Malta in Msida, Malta. He completed his residency training in neurology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Department of Neurosciences in Newark, N.J. This was followed by a vascular and critical care neurology fellowship as well as an endovascular surgical neuroradiology fellowship at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn.

He is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Neurology and Vascular Neurology and also holds certificates in neurocritical care and neurosonology. He serves as a member of the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery, Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology, American Society of Neuroimaging, American Heart Association/ American Stroke Association, American Academy of Neurology, Neurocritical Care Society and the Medical Association of Malta.

Dr. Cordina’s area of expertise includes clot retrieval and stent placement in patients suffering from stroke, as well as aneurysm and brain vascular malformation embolization treatment. He speaks fluent English, Maltese, Spanish and Italian.

Dr. Cordina is currently accepting new patients. For appointments, call (251) 660-5108.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The University of South Alabama Medical Center is the first hospital in the state to be recognized by the American Heart Association for the way stroke patients are cared for when they arrive at the emergency department. The Medical Center’s stroke team had to achieve specific results spanning a two-year period to receive the award. Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the U.S.

The USA Medical Center’s stroke team earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus award. USA Medical Center was the first hospital in Alabama to receive this honor for the rapid administration of a stroke-stopping medication called tPA.

“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and this award demonstrates our commitment to ensuring patients receive care based on nationally respected clinical guidelines,” said USA Medical Center Administrator Beth Anderson. “USA Medical Center is dedicated to improving the quality of stroke care and the guidelines help us achieve that goal.”

The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment and success in ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence. This recognition is granted to programs that have successfully rendered the high quality of care through the use of specific guidelines.

To qualify for the award, the hospital had to meet quality measures aimed at the reduction of time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with tPA. This clot buster is the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat acute ischemic strokes. If given intravenously within 3 to 4.5 hours following the onset of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the debilitating effects of a stroke.

The July Med School Café lecture will feature Dr. Spencer Liles, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and a surgical oncologist with USA Physicians Group.

His lecture, titled “Cancer Update 2016: The Significance of Familial Cancer Syndromes,” will be held on July 26, 2016, at the USA Faculty Club on USA’s main campus. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m., and the presentation begins at noon.

This interactive lecture will explore the current state of cancer treatment and care in 2016 with a review of the recently published American Cancer Society data. Dr. Liles will discuss the current state of prevention, screening and treatment with a focus on the emerging area of familial cancer syndromes. Unfortunately, certain types of cancer do cluster in families and the audience will leave with a general understanding of these cancer syndromes and the current approach to diagnosis and treatment in these families.

The Med School Café lecture and lunch are provided free of charge, but reservations are required. For more information or to make reservations, call Kim Partridge at (251) 460-7770 or e-mail kepartridge@health.southalabama.edu.

Med School Café is a free community lecture series sponsored by the USA Physicians Group. Each month, faculty from the USA College of Medicine share their expertise on a specific medical condition, providing insight on the latest treatment available.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The University of South Alabama Department of Emergency Medicine hosted a lecture featuring Dr. Peter Viccellio, vice chair of the
department of emergency medicine and associate chief medical officer at
State University of New York in Stony Brook, N.Y.

Dr. Viccellio has instituted a full capacity protocol at Stony Brook
University Hospital that has been emulated nationwide, with data
demonstrating impact on patient flow, patient safety, length of stay and
patient satisfaction. He is a national author on issues of patient flow, overcrowding, boarding and hospital efficiency.

Support for Dr. Viccellio’s presentation and visit was provided by the Dr. Richard Goldhamer Endowment.

Dr. Daniel Preud’Homme, director of the Pediatric Healthy Life Center and professor of pediatrics at the University of South Alabama, will present “From Metformin to Insulin: What Else is There in Management of Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Young Adults?” for July’s pediatric grand rounds.

The event will take place Friday, July 15, 2016, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the Atlantis Room in the CWEB-2 building behind USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Preud’Homme will discuss the present guidelines for managing Type 2 diabetes and review bariatric approaches. He will also summarize the evidence-based data and practice for each new pharmaco-therapeutic approach to Type 2 diabetes.

The event is open to faculty, staff and students. Light breakfast, coffee and beverages will be provided.